Dioneda sets sights on Hollywood

Senior Shane Dioneda is one of the many people who has been inspired to pursue the art of filmmaking.

Dioneda’s first attempts at making films were in the sixth grade with Lego stop motion videos recreating well-known films.

Inspired by directors like Steven Spielberg, Neil Blomkamp and Gareth Edwards, along with his older brother, Justin Dioneda, who writes, produces and films of his own projects, Dioneda’s videos became more complicated technically, visually and narratively as Dioneda learned to use a variety of special effects, movie-making programs and film techniques to continue making better projects.

This year, Dioneda has spent time on several projects, including a short promotional video for the Jim Schoemehl Run, a comedy sketch video for the school’s a cappella groups and a short film for the All Write Festival.

Also Dioneda wrote and produced the videos for all of the contestants in the annual Mr. Webster Pageant. He first helped to create the videos for Mr. Webster contestants in his sophomore year.

Dioneda also has designed and digitized various logos and posters for the school literary magazine, The Branch, the All Write Festival and DECA events.

Steve Leftridge, who teaches Film Appreciation at the school, runs the All Write Festival and professionally reviews film and a variety of other pop culture elements, had a lot to say about Dioneda’s films, which he was first exposed to when he saw the Mr. Webster promotional videos.

“I was amazed by those. They were so good. He’s very creative and skilled and he makes it look easy. He produced a ton of videos in a short time, and they are all stylistically very different,” Leftridge said, adding that Dioneda’s short film for the All Write Festival was “a real highlight of the festival this year,” and that the festival would miss him.

After graduation, Dioneda plans to study cinema art and science with an emphasis on post-production at Columbia College Chicago. He has high hopes for the future.

“As of now, the dream is to work on Hollywood movies,” Dioneda said.

The movie business is uncertain, but perhaps some day, if his plan goes accordingly, Webster alumni will be able to say they went to school with the Shane Dioneda.

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Participant in Breakfast with Santa makes paper snowflakes. Children also made reindeer food and sat on Santa's lap. It was put on as a fundraiser for Marketing II/DECA New York Trip. Photo by Lindsey Bennett